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The state health department does not have the authority to regulate the handling of aging chemical weapons stored at the U.S. Army's Pueblo Chemical Depot, a federal appellate court ruled Wednesday.

A three-judge panel from the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals said federal law preempts state law when it comes to handling of the weapons.

The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment had tried to impose a deadline by which the depot needed to dispose of the weapons. The department had also attempted to make the depot comply with other state environmental regulations for the handling and storage of hazardous waste.

But the 10th Circuit judges said the state's regulatory attempt "interferes with the measured, flexible and frequently revised approach Congress has taken to destroy these weapons." As part of their ruling, the judges pointed to the recently decided U.S. Supreme Court case over Arizona's immigration laws, in which the nation's highest court said federal law takes precedent when a state law tries to achieve the same results through conflicting means.

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The weapons — decades-old relics such as mustard agent — are slated to be destroyed. Congress originally set a 2012 deadline for their destruction, but that was later extended to 2017. In 2007, depot officials told state regulators it would take until 2021 to destroy all the weapons. The Depot holds more than 700,000 munitions, some of which are prone to leaking.

The state health department sought to hold the Army to the 2017 deadline and to other deadlines in between to ensure the destruction is on schedule.

In their ruling, the judges wrote that it is understandable the state is impatient with the Army's schedule for destroying the dangerous weapons.

But the federal government's frequently extended deadlines show that federal law reigns supreme over the weapons, the judges ruled.

"This unmistakably indicates that Congress intended to reserve for itself the power and flexibility to establish and extend the destruction deadline," the judges wrote.

Carolyn Tyler, a spokeswoman for the Colorado Attorney General's office, said the state is weighing whether to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

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